Dispenser for paper sheets

ABSTRACT

A dispenser for containing and holding a stack of absorbent products includes a dispensing opening through which the products are dispensable and a manually graspable member that is graspable by a user from outside the dispenser and manipulatable to move the stack when the stack is in a depleted state from a retracted position relative to the dispensing opening to a position adjacent to the dispensing opening. The dispenser includes a stack moving member having a first configuration conforming to faces of the dispenser that are transverse to one another and a second configuration forming a ramp between those faces and extending towards the dispensing opening. The stack moving member is reconfigurable from the first configuration to the second configuration to move the stack when the stack is in a depleted state from a retracted position relative to the dispensing opening to a position adjacent to the dispensing opening.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is concerned with a dispenser for holding andcontaining a stack of absorbent products such as paper sheets. The papersheets may be any non-woven absorbent or hygiene material that is paperbased. The percentage of paper fibres in the sheet can vary so that onlya minor portion of the non-woven may be paper fibres. This is true ofsome moist wipes, whereby paper fibres are mixed with a large percentageof polymer fibres. The paper sheets may be paper towels, napkins, facialtissue, moist/wet wipes, toilet paper, etc. The absorbent products maybe absorbent garments such as diapers (or incontinence garments),absorbent pads such as sanitary towels or pant-liners.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

It is known in the art to provide a box for holding and containing astack of paper sheets. The box will have a dispensing opening throughwhich the sheets are dispensable from the stack and the box. Commonly,for facial tissue products, sheets are stacked in the box and the box isdesigned so that the sheets lay stacked upon one another with the weightof the stack resting on a bottom sheet of the stack, wherein the bottomsheet is adjacent a bottom face of the box. The dispensing opening isprovided, usually centrally, on a top face of the box adjacent a topsheet of the stack. Typically, the sheets are interfolded so that as onesheet is dispensed, it pulls part of the next sheet through thedispensing opening to give so called ‘pop-up’ dispensing. ‘Pop-up’dispensing makes it easy to locate the next tissue for dispensing as itsticks out of the box, as compared to having to reach into the boxthrough the dispensing opening to grab a sheet. Doing such would beparticularly fiddly as the stack becomes depleted as the top sheet wouldbe spaced away from the dispensing opening toward a bottom of the box.‘Pop-up’ dispensing is effective for ensuring that a first sheet in thestack is easy to grasp. There are, however, disadvantages to thetechnique. The depth of the box is limited to a length of the sheetsminus the overlap margin between adjacent tissues, which may be anundesirable design constraint in some applications. Further, some papersheet materials do not lend themselves to interfolding, so pop-up sheetdispensers are not always a viable option.

There is also known a tissue box whereby the stack rests on the bottomof the box on an edge of the sheets in the stack. That is, planar facesof the first and last sheets in the stack are located adjacent front andback faces of the box, while bottom edges of each sheet are locatedadjacent a bottom face of the box with respect to gravity so that theweight of the stack rests on those bottom edges. Such boxes may be wallmountable in that a top of the box can be hung from a support member(e.g. a towel bar) such as those made for being received in a hollowcore of, say, a roll of kitchen towels. A dispensing opening may bepositioned at the bottom of the front face of the box.

An example of an edge stacked paper sheet dispenser is the packagedabsorbent paper product of US 2002/0092789. It can occur in such a paperproduct dispenser that, when the stack becomes depleted, the stack movesto the back of the dispenser, away from the front of the dispensingopening. If that occurs, a user may struggle to reach the paper sheets.In view of such an issue, US 2002/0092789 discloses one version of thepackaged absorbent product dispenser that is in the shape of a threedimensional parallelogram so that a bottom face is angled downwardlyfrom a back face to a front face, which feeds the paper sheets to thedispensing opening as the stack is depleted. This helps to eliminate theneed to reach into the dispenser when there is a missed interfold ordispensing problem. The parallelogram design of US 2002/0092789 may notalways work as it is intended. That is, the depleted stack could take ona profile, whereby these sheets are not fed to the dispensing openingand thus still get stuck at the back of the dispenser.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,007 and US 2002/0108962 disclose other mechanismsfor positioning a depleted stack towards the dispensing opening. U.S.Pat. No. 5,102,007 discloses a rotatable blocking member that is biasedtoward a blocking position. The blocking member moves to the blockingposition under the bias once the stack is depleted to a predeterminedextent. In the blocking position, the stack is blocked from moving awayfrom the dispensing opening by a user applying an upward force to thebottom sheet of the stack in trying to withdraw a sheet through thedispensing opening. US 2002/0108962 discloses a sheet dispensing aid inthe form of a spring that pushes the sheets forward towards thedispensing opening. The biased blocking member and the spring dispensingaid of these prior art documents are not inexpensive to manufacture.Accordingly, they may be more suitable for implementation in apermanent, refillable dispenser, rather than a disposable one that isinexpensively made and designed to be disposed of once the stack is usedup.

Accordingly it is an object of the present disclosure to provide adispenser for dispensing a stack of absorbent products such as papersheets that is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and includes ameans for moving the stack toward a dispensing opening of the dispenserwhen the stack becomes depleted.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a dispenserfor containing and holding a stack of absorbent products such as papersheets located inside the dispenser, the dispenser comprising adispensing opening through which the products are dispensable, whereinthe dispenser comprises a manually graspable member that is graspable bya user from outside the dispenser and manipulatable by the user to movethe stack when it is in a depleted state from a retracted positionrelative to the dispensing opening to a position adjacent to thedispensing opening.

A dispenser according to the present disclosure includes a manuallygraspable member protruding to outside of the dispenser, which can bepulled upon by a user to move the stack toward the dispensing openingwhere the products may be easily grasped and dispensed, as compared tothe retracted position where the products are spaced from the dispensingopening and can not be easily reached. It is under manual force from theuser that the stack is moved toward the dispensing opening, which is incontrast to the spring mechanisms of the prior art discussed above.Accordingly, the stack moving means of the present disclosure may berelatively inexpensively manufactured. Further, the stack is movablefrom the retracted position whenever it is deemed to be necessary at thebehest of the user by manipulating the manually graspable member.

In an embodiment, the dispenser comprises a stack moving member forengaging the stack, wherein the manually graspable member ismanipulatable to reconfigure the stack moving member to thereby move thestack from the retracted position to the position adjacent thedispensing opening when the stack is in the depleted state.

Thus, the manually graspable member and the stack moving member areoperatively associated with one another. The former being positionedoutside of the dispenser for operation by a user and the latter beingpositioned inside the dispenser to operate on, and in engagement with,the stack to affect a stack moving operation.

In an embodiment, the manually graspable member is arranged to protrudeout of the dispensing opening to allow it to be grasped by a user.

The manually graspable member thus extends from inside the dispenser tooutside the dispenser in order to allow it to operate with the stackinside the dispenser and the dispensing opening provides a convenientopening through the dispenser to use for the manually graspable memberto protrude through. It is envisioned that a separate opening may beprovided through which the manually graspable member can extend. Forexample, a dedicated slot could be provided, perhaps in the same face asthe dispensing opening, out of which the manually graspable member canprotrude.

In an embodiment, the stack moving member is arranged to protrude out ofthe dispenser to provide the manually graspable member.

This is a simple, yet effective, way to operatively associate the stackmoving member and the manually graspable member, specifically by makingthem integral members. The manually graspable part of the stack movingmember is manipulatable from outside the box to cause the stack engagingpart to move the stack toward the dispensing opening so that a productcan be easily reached. One can, however, imagine other implementationssuch as one where a separate manually graspable member is positionedoutside the box and is attached to the stack moving member by extendingthrough a wall of the dispenser. The manually graspable memberpreferably protrudes through the dispenser on the same face of thedispenser as the face where the dispensing opening is located. One can,however, imagine an alternative implementation where the manuallygraspable member protrudes through a side face relative to a front facewhere the dispensing opening is located. Such a manually graspablemember would still be operable on the stack moving member to move thestack from a retracted position to a forward position adjacent thedispensing opening.

In an embodiment, the stack moving member is for engaging a face of thestack opposed to a face of the stack that is positioned adjacent to thedispensing opening.

In this embodiment, the stack moving member is shaped to have a partpositioned behind the stack relative to the dispensing opening, whichensures the stack will be moved forward when a force is applied to thestack moving member by way of the manually graspable member in adirection toward the dispensing opening.

In an embodiment, the stack moving member is shaped to cradle the stackwhen the stack is in the retracted position so as to engage a face ofthe stack opposed to a face of the stack adjacent the dispensing openingand a side of the stack connecting the opposed faces.

In this way, the stack moving member securely engages faces of the stacktransverse to one another by taking on an L shaped profile. Thiscradling effect is able to grip the stack to allow controlled movementthereof when the manually graspable member is manipulated.

In a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided adispenser for holding and dispensing a stack of absorbent products suchas paper sheets, the dispenser comprising a dispensing opening throughwhich products in the stack are dispensable, wherein the dispensercomprises a stack moving member having a first configuration conformingto faces of the dispenser that are transverse to one another and asecond configuration forming a ramp between those faces of the dispenserand extending towards the dispensing opening, wherein the stack movingmember is reconfigurable from the first configuration to the secondconfiguration to thereby move the stack when it is in a depleted statefrom a retracted position relative to the dispensing opening to aposition adjacent to the dispensing opening.

The dispenser of the second aspect of the present disclosure allows thestack to substantially fill the dispenser when the stack is in a fullstate because it conforms to the faces of the dispenser, thereby nottaking up space. In the second configuration, a depleted stack is movedtoward the dispensing opening by being tilted in the dispenser by theramp. The ramp further provides a configuration down which the stack canslide to position a product for dispensing conveniently adjacent thedispensing opening.

This form of reconfiguring of the stack moving member to a ramped shapefrom a shape conforming to the walls of the dispenser is preferablyapplied to the first aspect of the disclosure. One can, however, imaginean implementation whereby the stack moving member remains in the shapeit has when it conforms to the inner walls of the dispensing opening andis simply moved toward the dispensing opening in that shape to move thestack to the position adjacent the dispensing opening.

In an embodiment, the stack moving member is fixed at a point relativeto the dispenser so that at least part of the stack moving memberrotates about the fixed point in reconfiguring from the firstconfiguration to the second configuration.

Thus, pulling on the manually graspable member causes the stack movingmember to rotate about the fixed point to form the ramp.

Preferably, a blocking member is provided to prevent upward movement ofthe stack moving member, where upward is to be interpreted in thecontext of the direction of movement the stack moving member makes inrotating to the second configuration. The blocking member acts toprevent upward movement as the stack moving member runs from inside thedispenser to outside the dispenser in reconfiguring the stack movingmember from the first configuration to the second configuration. In anembodiment, the blocking member is located at a junction between insideand outside of the dispenser. These features ensure that the stackmoving member is pulled outward and perhaps a little downward, in movingthe stack toward the dispensing opening. It could happen, particularlyin the embodiment rotatable about the fixed point, that the stack movingmember is moved upward and away from the dispensing opening, which wouldnot facilitate a sheet being conveniently grasped through the dispensingopening. To ensure proper forward movement of the stack, the blockingmember is provided.

In an embodiment, the stack moving member is bent to conform to firstand second faces of the dispenser when it is in the first configuration,wherein the first and second faces of the dispenser extend substantiallytransversely to one another, and the bend is straightened in order toform a ramp between the first and second faces that extends toward thedispensing opening in the second configuration of the stack movingmember.

In this embodiment, the stack moving member is reconfigured from a spacesaving configuration where it is in conformity with the faces of thedispenser to allow the dispenser to be filled to a configuration forcingthe sheets adjacent the dispensing opening for easy access thereto.

In an embodiment, the stack moving member is moveable relative to thedispensing opening. This feature enables the stack moving member to pullthe stack closer to the dispensing opening.

In an embodiment, the stack moving member is sized and shaped to be ableto close the dispensing opening when the stack moving member is in thefirst configuration and the second configuration. That is, the stackmoving member may protrude out of the dispenser to form a flap, whichmay also provide the manually graspable member, that is positionable toclose the dispensing opening.

In an embodiment, the stack moving member is sized and shaped to cover,at least substantially, the entire dispensing opening when the stackmoving member is in the first configuration and the secondconfiguration. Thus, the stack moving member may serve the dual functionof being configurable to move the stack from a retracted position to aforward position when it is depleted and also to entirely close thedispensing opening for hygiene purposes. Further, because the stackmoving member is so sized, it protrudes from inside the dispenser whereit engages the stack to outside the dispenser where it provides both acover and a manually graspable member that is manipulatable to affectmovement of the stack from the retracted position to the forwardposition. That is, it is the cover that can be manipulated by a user(e.g. pulled), in order to bring the stack forward to the dispensingopening.

The stack moving member may thus include two folds, one between firstand second parts of the stack moving member respectively conforming tothe first and second faces of the dispenser and one between the secondpart and a third part of the stack moving member forming a cover memberand manually graspable member when the stack moving member is in thefirst configuration. The folds provide hinges. The first hinge/foldallows the stack moving member to be straightened to form the ramp andthe second hinge/fold allows the stack moving member to provide anopenable and closeable flap with respect to the dispensing opening.

In an embodiment, the dispenser comprises a releasable attachment,preferably being repeatably releasable and reattachable, of the stackmoving member to the dispenser. This may be in the form of adhesivetape, or the combination of adhesive tape and a releasable film, or hookand loop attachment, a cooperating push button and receptaclearrangement, a slide fastener or other known means. The releasableattachment could provide a border about the stack moving member forattachment about at least a major portion of a periphery of thedispensing opening. A slide fastener comprises as one mating componentprotruding lines defining a channel between them and as a cooperatingmating component a protruding line for secure receipt in the channel.The stack moving member may thus protrude from the dispenser, yet beattachable to an outside surface to keep it neat. Further, thereleasable attachment may be used to keep the stack moving member in adispensing opening closing position for hygiene purposes. In adisposable implementation of the dispenser, it may be wrapped with aplastic film also for hygiene purposes.

Preferably, the dispenser is made, at least to a major degree, ofcardboard. This is an environmentally friendly, often, but notnecessarily, biodegradable material. Other materials can be used. Thus,the dispenser of the present disclosure is preferably a disposable onethat is intended to be disposed of after the stack is completelydepleted. Refillable implementations are, however, imagineable thatwould be made of more hardwearing materials than cardboard. Thedispenser may thus be made of plastic, wood or metal at least to a majordegree. The stack moving member (and the manually graspable member) ispreferably made of cardboard as well. Other materials could be used,which may be biodegradable or less biodegradable materials could also beused in view of the relatively small size of the stack moving member.Alternative materials for the stack moving member (and the manuallygraspable member) are paper or plastic film.

In an embodiment, the dispenser comprises the stack of absorbent sheets.The products may be diapers, incontinence diapers or pads, panty liners,feminine towels, etc. In an embodiment, the product claimed is adispenser box in combination with a stack of sheets. The sheets arepreferably in the form of a kitchen paper product for wiping up kitchenand other household spills. The dispenser can hold and contain a stackof paper sheets of any kind, as described above. The sheets may beseparate in the stack or they may be interfolded. The present disclosureis particularly useful with separate sheets as they are more prone tobecoming stuck at the back of a dispenser as they do not have the popout functionality of interfolded sheets.

In an embodiment, the dispenser includes hanging structure to enable thedispenser to be hung from a wall. It can be advantageous to have adispenser for tissues mountable to a wall since it can then be liftedaway from a counter top where the dispenser and paper sheets may beprone to being wetted by counter top spills. The hanging structure maybe in the form of one or more holes in a face of the dispenser opposedto a face encompassing the dispensing opening. Alternatively, thehanging structure may be structure to allow the dispenser to be hungfrom a bar, such as a bar usually used to hang kitchen roll from. Anyother known and compatible means for hanging a paper sheet dispenser toa wall may be utilised with the dispenser of the present disclosure.

The dispenser comprises a front face encompassing the dispensingopening. The dispensing opening is preferably positioned at one end ofthe front face, rather than being centrally located. In this way, thedispenser can be hung from a wall with the dispensing opening at abottom of the front face. In an embodiment, the front face is elongate,as is the dispenser itself, and the dispensing opening is located at onelongitudinal end of the front face, which will thus be a bottom of thedispenser when the dispenser is correctly hung from a wall with the topend of the front face facing upwards.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 shows a front view of a dispenser with a cover member in an openconfiguration.

FIG. 2 shows a front view of a dispenser with the cover in a closedposition.

FIG. 3 shows a cross sectional view of the dispenser, where thecross-section is taken down a longitudinal central line of the dispenseras shown by the dotted line in FIG. 1. There can be seen a stack movingmember in its configuration when the dispenser is full of paper sheets(the stack is full).

FIG. 4 shows the same cross sectional view of the dispenser as FIG. 3,except that the stack moving member has been pulled forward because thestack is in a depleted state, thereby moving the stack forward to aposition adjacent the dispensing opening.

FIG. 5 shows a rear view of the dispenser showing the wall hangingstructure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 shows a box shaped dispenser 1 comprising bottom and top faces 2,3, side faces 4, 5 and front and back faces 6, 7 (the back face 7 can beseen in FIG. 5). The front face is characterised by encompassing adispensing opening 8. The dispensing opening is located in the frontface 6 at a position adjacent the bottom face 2. The back and top faces7, 3 are respectively opposed to the front and bottom faces 6, 7. Thedispenser 1 is elongate in that a direction from the bottom face to thetop face 2, 3 is a longitudinal direction, while a lateral directionextends from one side 4 to the other side 5. The dispensing opening 8 ispositioned laterally centrally at the bottom of the front face 6.

There is a cover member 9 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 that is used to openand close the dispensing opening 8. The cover member 9 is pivotablebetween the open and closed configurations, which can respectively beseen in FIGS. 1 and 2. The cover member has attached to it a piece oftape 10 to releasably attach the cover member 10 in the closed positionto a portion of the front face 6 just above the dispensing opening 8.The releasable adhesive of the tape 10 is such as to allow the covermember 9 to be repeatedly reattached to the front face 6, ideally for asmany recursions as there are sheets held in the dispenser. The covermember 9 substantially completely covers the dispensing opening 8 in theclosed position. This is enabled by a slot 11 that is continuous withthe dispensing opening 8, yet laterally longer than the dispensingopening 8 on either side of the dispensing opening 8. The cover member 9can thus be made laterally longer than the dispensing opening 8 tothereby cover the full lateral extent of the dispensing 8, while stillbeing able to extend from inside the dispenser 1 to outside thedispenser 1.

The cover member 9 is referred to as a manually graspable member in thesummary section above and in the claims below. This alternativeterminology will also be used in the present description depending uponthe function being described. As will become clear from FIGS. 3 and 4,the cover member 9 serves the dual purpose of covering the paper sheetsin the stack when it is in the closed position and serving as a manuallygraspable member 9 that is operable by a user to move the stack forwardin the dispenser 1 when the cover member 9 is in the open position.

Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, there can be seen a laterally central,longitudinal cross-section of the dispenser 1 of FIG. 1, which has beentaken along the dotted line of FIG. 1. The dispenser 1 includes a stackmoving member 12 in the form of a planar piece that has been foldedtwice to provide three panels 12 a, 12 b, 12 c. A first panel 12 a isattached to the inside of a back face 7 of the dispenser 1 at a fixedpoint 13. When the stack moving member 12 is in the retracted positionshown in FIG. 3, the first panel 12 a is in face to face relation withthe back face 7 of the dispenser 1 and extends so as to conform to theback face 7 of the dispenser 1. When the stack moving member 12 is inthe retracted position, the second panel 12 b is in face to facerelation with the bottom face 2 of the dispenser 1 and extends so as toconform with the bottom face 2. In the retracted configuration of thestack moving member 12, the first and second panels 12 a, 12 b extendtransversely to one another, with the first panel 12 a extendinglongitudinally relative to the dispenser 1 and the second panel 12 bextending laterally relative to the dispenser 1. The third panel 12 cextends through the slot 11 to extend outside of the dispenser 1(relative to the inside of the dispenser 1 for containing a stack ofsheets) and provides the manually graspable/cover member 9. The thirdpanel 12 c is pivotable about a hinge 13 (FIG. 1) provided by the foldbetween the second and third panels 12 b, 12 c from the open position ofFIGS. 1, 3 and 4 to the closed position of FIG. 2 to thereby provide anopenable and closeable cover member 9 as described above.

When the cover member/manually graspable member 9 is pulled upon fromoutside the dispenser 1 by a user, the stack moving member 12 is movedfrom the retracted position of FIG. 3, where it conforms to inside facesof the dispenser 1, to an extended position as shown in FIG. 4. In theextended position, the first and second panels are straightened withrespect to the retracted configuration when they have a transverse bendbetween them. The stack moving member thus changes from a configurationconforming to the inside faces 2, 7 of the dispenser 1 to a rampedconfiguration, where the stack moving member 12 provides a ramp from amiddle portion of the back face 7 where the fixed point 13 is to theslot 11 adjacent the dispensing opening 8. The ramp provided by thestack moving member provides a downward slope for a stack of papersheets 14 contained by the dispenser to slide down toward the dispensingopening 8. It is not necessarily the downward slope that is critical ingetting the stack of paper sheets 14 adjacent the dispensing opening 8as compared to the retracted position of the stack moving member 12. Thestack of paper sheets 14 has a corner that sits in a corner of the stackmoving member 12 provided by the fold between the first and secondpanels 12 b, 12 c. When the stack moving member 12 is moved to theextended position of FIG. 4, its corner is moved closer to thedispensing opening 8 as the stack moving member 12 rotates about thefixed point 13 under force exerted on the stack moving member 12 by auser grasping and pulling on an end of the third panel 12 c/covermember/manually graspable member 9. The corner of the stack 14 willremain seated in the corner of the stack moving member 12, therebymoving the stack 14 closer to the dispensing opening 8. The first panel12 a needs to be long enough and the fixed point positioned such thatthe arc followed by the corner between the first and second panels 12 a,12 b is sufficiently shallow (i.e. not too curved) that the stack isable to move close enough to the dispensing opening 8 even when thestack is almost completely depleted (i.e. just one or a few sheetsleft). In the extended configuration of the stack moving member 12 shownin FIG. 4, the part of the second panel 12 b will protrude through theslot 11, as well as the cover/manually graspable member 9/third panel 12c.

In the full state shown in FIG. 3, the stack of paper sheets 14 iscompletely fills the dispenser 7 to such an extent that the stack movingmember panels 12 a and 12 b are forced by the stack 14 to conform toinside faces of the dispenser 1. The package 1 is deep enough that auser can not reach a thumb and forefinger through the dispensing opening8 to grasp a tissue therebetween when a sheet is faced against the rearface 7 of the dispenser 1, hence the need for a stack moving member 12.A depleted stack 14 is shown in FIG. 4 and is generally a quantity ofpaper sheets less than when the dispenser 1 is full and that can not beconveniently grasped by a thumb and forefinger through the dispensingopening 8 when the depleted stack 14 is faced against the rear face 7 ofthe dispenser 1.

Referring to FIG. 5, the rear face 7 of the dispenser 1 can be seen. Therear face 7 has positioned on it at least one (four in the shownembodiment) adhesive strip 15 and at least one wall (again, four)mounting hole 16. If a wall fastener such as a screw is convenientlyavailable, the wall mounting holes 16 can be used to mount the dispenser1 to the wall. Alternatively, the peelable strips can be used to mountthe dispenser to a wall.

The dispenser 1 is optimally made entirely, or at least to a majorextent, of cardboard, as this material is readily available, isinexpensive, is often biodegradable and is able to be processed withestablished know-how to make the dispenser 1.

In use, the dispenser 1 can be mounted to a wall via the adhesive strips15 or the mounting holes 16, usually at a location in the kitchen thatis conveniently accessible and position so that the dispenser 1 is notin contact with a counter top. The dispenser may, however, be used in amode sitting on a counter top. In this sense, the strips 15 and mountingholes 16 are optional. The dispenser 1 is mounted so that the dispensingopening 8 located downwardly. The dispensing opening is revealed byopening the cover member 9 (which is provided by a third panel 12 c ofthe stack moving member 12) by peeling the tape 10 from the front face 6of the dispenser 1. A user withdraws a paper sheet from the stack 14through the dispensing opening 8 in an outward motion (normal to thewall) when the sheet is grasped by a user. The cover member 9 may hangdown under gravity, allowing the user to remove a paper sheet in adownward and outward motion. The dispensing opening 8 (including theslot 11) is preferably coterminous with the bottom of the front face 6(where it meets the bottom face 2) so that there is not any interveningfront face 6 material getting in the way of a sheet being pulleddownwards. After a user has withdrawn a required number of sheets, thecover 9 is closed over the dispensing opening 8 to protect the stack 14from dust and other contaminants for hygiene reasons.

After, say, half of the sheets in the stack 14 have been withdrawn, theuser will no longer be able to conveniently withdraw sheets through thedispensing opening 8 as they will be located at the back of thedispenser 1, too far away from the dispensing opening to convenientlyreach. The user can thus grasp the cover member 9, which is thus beingused as a manually graspable member 9, with the thumb and forefinger ata front edge portion thereof and pull on it. In doing so, the stackmoving member moves from the bent configuration shown in FIG. 3 thatconforms with inside back and bottom faces 7, 2 of the dispenser 1 to astraightened configuration as shown in FIG. 4 that ramps the stack 14closer to the dispensing opening. In going from the bent to thestraightened configuration, the stack moving member 12, and particularlythe fold between the first panel 12 a and the second panel 12 b rotateabout the fixed point 13 attaching the stack moving member 12 to theback face 7, thereby moving the fold, and the back of the stack 14sitting on it, closer to the dispensing opening 8. The depleted stack 14is thus moved to a position adjacent the dispensing opening 8 from aretracted position to allow a user to conveniently grasp a front sheetin the stack 14 and withdraw it through the dispensing opening 8. Theuser can then close the dispensing opening by pivoting the third panel12 c about the fold between the second and third panels 12 b, 12 c tocover the dispensing opening 8 and adhere the tape 10 to the front face6. Before closing the dispensing opening, the user may move the stackmoving member 12 back into the dispenser conforming configuration ofFIG. 4 by pushing on the front edge portion of the third panel 12 cuntil the fold between the first and second panels 12 b, 12 c againmeets the corner between the back face 7 and the bottom face 2 of thedispenser 1.

There is a wall overhang of the front face 6 of the dispenser 1 betweenthe slot 11 and the dispensing opening 8. As the stack moving member 12is pulled out through slot 11, it runs against the wall overhang, whichthus prevents the stack moving member from moving into the dispensingopening 8. Importantly, this means that the stack moving member 12 isblocked from being moved upwardly and thus the pulling direction of thecover member 9 is required to be outwardly (and perhaps a littledownwardly). Upward movement could, in theory, not be effective inmoving the sheets closer to the dispensing opening 8.

Once the dispenser is completely out of sheets to dispenser, thedispenser 1 can be dismounted from the wall and thrown away and replacedwith a new one.

A preferred embodiment has been described above. A number of variationsare envisageable, some of which are described in the following.

The dispenser has been described as elongate in the bottom to topdirection. We can imagine a dispenser that is elongate in the left sideto right side direction, while a lateral axis of the dispenser passesthrough top and bottom faces thereof. A dispensing opening in such a boxwould still be provided at the bottom of a front face of the dispenseralong the lateral axis and it would be positioned at a central locationin the front face along the longitudinal axis.

The slot and the dispensing opening do not have to be continuous withone another. One can imagine a slot of similar configuration to thatshown in FIG. 2 that is spaced from the dispensing opening and thus hasa bridge of material of the front face of the dispenser between them.This might not be as easy to make as two holes would need to be made andit might not be as easy to get the stack moving member threaded throughsuch a small slot. In the embodiment of FIG. 2 where the dispensingopening and slot are continuous, the stack moving member can belaterally shortened by bending to fit through the dispensing opening andthen moved down into position in the slot where it is able to reform toits initial lateral extent.

The dispensing opening may be closed when it is first used by a separatecover member that is integral with the front face but tearable awaytherefrom by making use of a line of weakness. This will be familiar tothe skilled person from facial tissue boxes where a dispensing openingis covered by a tear away cover member that is defined in the face ofthe box with a line of weakness. Such a design may be appealing as itoffers security that the stack of paper sheets is delivered in ahygienic state. In such an embodiment, the manually graspable member canbe delivered in a position covering the tear away cover member as shownin FIG. 2. Alternatively, the manually graspable member may bepositioned inside the dispenser and only moved outside for manualgrasping after the tear away cover member has been removed.

In an extension of the above design having a tear away cover member, butwhich is also an independently applicable feature, the stack movingmember and the manually graspable member may be thinner than thedispensing opening, perhaps provided in the form of a strip. This wouldmean that it would not act as a cover member, as it would be laterallytoo thin to cover the dispensing opening. However, such a design may beadvantageous as the reduced extent may be aesthetically pleasing. Sinceit is not serving as a cover member, it could also be made shorter so asnot to protrude as far out through the dispensing opening. If themanually graspable member and stack moving member do not also have acover member function, then the slot is not a required feature sincethey are thinner than the dispensing opening. This design may also makeit easier to wrap the stack moving member and manually graspable memberaround a bottom edge of the stack so as to be easily located inside thedispenser for storage and shipment and only be protrudable outside ofthe dispenser once the dispenser has been opened such as by tearing acover member away as described above.

Instead of, or in addition to, the wall mounting structure shown in FIG.5, the dispenser may be hangable from a bar such as that used forrolling the core of a kitchen roll about. For example, the top of thedispenser may be provided with a suitably dimensioned hook.Alternatively, the top of the dispenser could be provided with a flapattached to one of the front face and the back face of the dispenser andremovably attachable to the other of the front and back face so that itcan be threaded about the bar (as shown in FIG. 1A of US 2002/0092789).

The holes for the wall mounting structure could be replaced by a centralhole, positioned toward a top of the dispenser, so that only one wallfastener is needed to hang the dispenser from a wall. The wall fastenercould be any available wall hook, including one already located on auser's wall. Thus, a dedicated or specially wall is not required.

The stack moving member, the cover member and the manually graspablemember are in the shown embodiments all the same integral piece. Theycould, however, be provided as separate members, while stillimplementing the core concept of the present disclosure. Thus, one canimagine, with reference to FIG. 1, a manually graspable member in theform of a pull button extending from the side faces 4, 5 of thedispenser and being attached to a separate stack moving member. Themanually graspable member would be operable to move the stack movingmember to move the stack, as required by the present disclosure. In aless modified form from that shown in FIG. 1, the protruding manuallygraspable member could be a separate, yet attached, piece from the stackmoving member. The manually graspable member could thus be made ofdifferent material or be of different dimension, i.e. laterally thinner,than the stack moving member. Making them as separate pieces couldfeasibly ease manufacture. They would be otherwise as shown in thefigures and described above. Similarly, a cover member may be attachedto a bottom face of the dispenser and pivotably attached thereto to openand close the dispensing opening or be a tear away member as describedabove, without being effected by the goings on of the manually graspablemember and the stack moving member. Accordingly, the members can beintegral or separate without departing from the scope of the invention.Nonetheless, the preferred embodiment is to have the members integral,as described above.

In the preferred embodiment, the stack moving member takes on astraightened form from a bent form in order to move the stack closer tothe dispensing opening, as shown by comparing FIGS. 3 and 4. It can beimagined, however, that the stack moving member maintains a bent form inmoving closer to the dispensing opening. Thus, the planar stack movingmember could be folded into an L shaped profile when viewing the edgeand be made relatively rigid. Some sort of track or other guide, such asthe side walls, could be provided along which the stack moving member isguided in moving from a retracted position to a position closer to thedispensing opening by pulling on the manually graspable member. In thismodification, the stack moving member would not need to be fixed to arear face of the dispenser.

In another modification, the stack moving member could be made of aresilient material so that it automatically moves back to a retractedposition relative to the dispensing opening after the manually graspablemember is released. This would require two handed dispensing, but mayoffer hygienic benefits as the stack may move with the stack movingmember into a position receded from the dispensing opening, which iswhere contaminants come from.

The scope of the invention is defined by the following claims.

1. A dispenser for containing and holding a stack of absorbent productslocated inside the dispenser, the dispenser comprising a dispensingopening through which the products are dispensable, and a manuallygraspable member that is graspable by a user from outside the dispenserand manipulatable by the user to move the stack when the stack is in adepleted state from a retracted position relative to the dispensingopening to a position adjacent to the dispensing opening, wherein themanually graspable member is arranged to protrude out of the dispensingopening to allow the manually graspable member to be grasped by the userwhen the stack is in the retracted position.
 2. The dispenser of claim1, further comprising a stack moving member for engaging the stack,wherein the manually graspable member is manipulatable by the user toreconfigure the stack moving member from a first configuration in whichthe stack is in the retracted position to a second configuration inwhich the stack is moved to the position adjacent the dispensing openingwhen the stack is in the depleted state.
 3. The dispenser of claim 2,wherein the stack moving member engages a face of the stack opposed to aface of the stack that is positioned adjacent to the dispensing opening.4. The dispenser of claim 2, wherein the stack moving member conforms tofaces of the dispenser and of the stack that are transverse to oneanother when the stack moving member is in the first configuration, andforms a ramp connecting faces of the dispenser and extending towards thedispensing opening when the stack moving member is in the secondconfiguration.
 5. A dispenser for holding and dispensing a stack ofabsorbent products, the dispenser comprising a dispensing openingthrough which products in the stack are dispensable, and a stack movingmember having a first configuration conforming to faces of the dispenserthat are transverse to one another and a second configuration forming aramp between those faces of the dispenser and extending towards thedispensing opening, wherein the stack moving member is reconfigurablefrom the first configuration to the second configuration to thereby movethe stack when the stack is in a depleted state from a retractedposition relative to the dispensing opening to a position adjacent tothe dispensing opening.
 6. The dispenser of claim 5, further comprisinga manually graspable member that is graspable by a user from outside thedispenser and is manipulatable by the user, wherein the manuallygraspable member is manipulatable by the user to reconfigure the stackmoving member from the first configuration to the second configurationto thereby move the stack from the retracted position to the positionadjacent the dispensing opening when the stack is in the depleted state.7. The dispenser of claim 3, wherein the stack moving member is arrangedto protrude out of the dispenser when in the first configuration toprovide the manually graspable member.
 8. The dispenser of claim 3,wherein the stack moving member is shaped to cradle the stack when thestack is in the retracted position and the stack moving member is in thefirst configuration so as to engage a face of the stack opposed to aface of the stack adjacent the dispensing opening and a side of thestack connecting the opposed faces.
 9. The dispenser of claim 3, whereinthe stack moving member is fixed at a point relative to the dispenser sothat at least part of the stack moving member rotates about the fixedpoint in reconfiguring from the first configuration to the secondconfiguration.
 10. The dispenser of claim 3, wherein the stack movingmember is bent at a bend to conform to first and second faces of thedispenser when the stack moving member is in the first configuration,wherein the first and second faces of the dispenser extend substantiallytransversely to one another, and the bend is straightenable to form aramp between the first and second faces that extends toward thedispensing opening in the second configuration of the stack movingmember.
 11. The dispenser of claim 3, wherein the stack moving member issized and shaped to close the dispensing opening when the stack movingmember is in the first configuration.
 12. The dispenser of claim 3,wherein the stack moving member is sized and shaped to cover the entiredispensing opening when the stack moving member is in the firstconfiguration.
 13. The dispenser of claim 3, further comprising areleasable attachment of the stack moving member to an outside surfaceof the dispenser that is repeatedly releasable and reattachable.
 14. Thedispenser of claim 1, wherein a majority of at least one of thedispenser, the stack moving member and the manually graspable member ismade of cardboard.
 15. The dispenser of claim 1 containing and holding astack of paper sheets.